A survey by the American Rental Association (ARA) says that online rentals will be the second most common equipment rental method. The equipment rental industry is shifting toward e-commerce, online transactions, and digital rentals — and not including these in your strategy can harm your business.
To ensure you can continuously develop your customer relationship and build loyalty within your client base, so they return to your business, we have created a rental customer portal to empower your business and customers.
This article shares the top 15 benefits equipment rental companies will gain from the STAEDEAN Rental Customer Portal – our rental customer-focused solution.
What is the STAEDEAN Rental Customer Portal?
The STAEDEAN Rental Customer Portal is a cloud-based, mobile portal designed to give customers high visibility into their rented equipment anytime and anywhere. The portal helps empower your end customers and streamlines their equipment rental management with quick access to deep insights and support.
Who can use the STAEDEAN Rental Customer Portal?
Any equipment rental company can leverage this portal as it is an ERP-agnostic connection built on the Microsoft Power Platform.
The customer portal can also be a valuable add-on for our cloud-based, rental-specific software, STAEDEAN Rental Management, embedded in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance and Supply Chain Management (F&SCM).
Benefits of STAEDEAN Rental Customer Portal for equipment rental companies
1. Offer details on rented equipment
With the portal, your customers can see the history of equipment they rented from you and details of the equipment. They can also see current and past rentals, deliveries, pickups, and rental totals.
2. Customizable to your needs
You can brand the portal based on your preference. Logos, text, color schemes, display images, or tabs appearing — you can configure anything according to your preference and business requirements.
3. Improve operational efficiency
With automated data sharing, your end-customers can access real-time information around the clock. This visibility into rental requests, updates, and contracts allows customers to make appropriate, timely decisions and manage their equipment autonomously.
4. Increase customer loyalty
By enabling seamless and effective processes that aid auto-pilot mode, you can offer customer support without intervention or help from your internal team. This reduces dependency on your business, positively impacts your overall NPS, and improves customer loyalty.
5. Track equipment utilization
You can leverage GPS technology to track equipment on a map, including all the locations of the equipment and the list of equipment on rent. Customers can monitor utilization for each piece of equipment and make better decisions.
6. Insights into analytics
Include analytics and business intelligence in your business with a rental dashboard displaying out-of-the-box KPIs directly to your customers. You can optimize operations and make evidence-based decisions by adding Power BI charts in the portal.
7. Quick access to information
Customers can request, extend, manage, and track their equipment with a few simple clicks anywhere/anytime directly from their device. You can also offer dashboards, tips, and list out FAQs based on past customer queries to improve the experience.
8. Streamline communication
The portal provides you with a channel to communicate with customers directly. You can get insight into customer concerns and queries and address them, increasing communication efficiency. Simultaneously, your customers can maximize the machinery they rent, clarify doubts, and follow other best practices.
9. Enhance invoicing process
The rental portal helps you enhance the billing and payment tracking processes. It shows all the invoices with options to filter on the payment date and to download the invoice directly. Customers can access the history of the rental invoices, download original invoices, set up payment reminders, connect to local payment services, and approve invoices to ensure agreement and a smooth payment journey.
10. Widen flexibility across any ERP
STAEDEAN Rental Customer Portal works independently of the ERP system. It can connect easily with any ERP, including Dynamics 365 F&SCM (Dynamics 365 F&O), SAP, Infor, etc.
11. Secure login
With a responsive display, the portal can run on any device – computers, mobile, tablets, or smartphones. There are different security roles to see or change data within the customer portal. You can provide your customers easy access, ensuring up-to-date protection based on Microsoft Power Pages security.
12. Swift customer feedback
Customers can report damages or disputes whenever there is a problem with a piece of equipment. They can also follow up on the cases they need assistance with, easing feedback and grievance redressal.
13. Gain a competitive edge
You could pivot your focus on enhancing existing processes or introducing value-added services after your customers are able to manage various critical actions on their own. With more time and resources, you can respond better to the changing market dynamics and stay ahead of the competition.
14. Reduce costs with automation
By allowing your rental customers access to the correct data, they can maximize the profitability of the equipment or return it before its due date to avoid unnecessary costs. The rental portal can act as a user manual to ease the rental process for the rental company and the customer.
15. Easy user adaptability
Our rental customer portal is a user-friendly solution with mobile capability. It is an easy-to-use solution with a configurable interface, shortening the training required to use the portal.
STAEDEAN Rental Customer Portal: A look into the solution in action
Here is a video highlighting the key capabilities of the rental customer portal so you can see how it benefits your equipment rental business.
Want to strengthen your customer relations and loyalty?
The rental customer portal will be a good choice if you want a portable solution that allows direct customer communication.
Backed by mobile technology, you will have better asset utilization, enhanced customer satisfaction, and improved productivity.
By automating operations and communications, the portal can be a win-win situation for your business and end customers.
You can explore more about this cutting-edge solution by checking out the STAEDEAN Rental Customer Portal factsheet, which shares information on the following:
- The need for a customer portal for equipment rental companies
- The benefits of our STAEDEAN Rental Customer Portal
- The features and functionalities
Olaf Jorritsma
